Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy after catastrophic floods killed 28 people

The camp reportedly had no evacuation plan before deadly flooding killed people last July 4.

Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 25 campers and two teenage counselors at the Christian camp for girls along the Guadalupe River in Texas.

Camp Mystic has been under increasing pressure since the July 4 disaster. Owners had planned to reopen the Texas Hill Country camp this summer for its 100th anniversary, but reversed course in April amid outrage from victims’ families and lawmakers. Victims' families filed lawsuits accusing the camp of failing to protect the girls as the powerful floodwaters approached.

Camp Mystic’s owner, Richard Eastland, also died in the flood.

Dallas bankruptcy attorney Sid Scheinberg is not associated with the case but said it's an understandable move.

"It's a reorganization plan," Scheinberg said. "It's a chance for them to put all their debt together and work at something to continue operating."

The camp listed its debt at more than $10 million, according to the filing made in federal bankruptcy court in Houston. An attorney for Camp Mystic has not responded to an email and a phone message seeking comment.

In response to the bankruptcy filing, Carrie Hanna, who lost her daughter Hadley in the flood, said in a statement, "Right now we are focused on honoring and remembering Hadley and our girls as we approach the year-anniversary of their tragic deaths.”

According to a statement from Brad Beckworth, Christina Yarnell, and Blair Townsend, attorneys for Cile Steward's family, "Filing for bankruptcy is another delay and avoidance tactic that has only compounded the grief of the Heaven’s 27 families. The timing, just before the one-year anniversary, is a despicable gut punch to families already bracing to grieve their daughters under a canopy of Fourth of July fireworks. The Eastlands are clearly trying to avoid a jury trial. They also know they are facing severe sanctions from the trial court as a result of their targeted campaign designed to villainize the Steward family."

Steward, 8, was in Camp Mystic’s custody and care; her body has not been recovered.

“Bankruptcy will not stop all responsible parties from being held accountable,” Paul Yetter, a lawyer who represents multiple families of campers and counselors who died at Camp Mystic, said in a statement. “These innocent girls deserve justice.”

Scheinberg said there is still a possibility of legal action during a bankruptcy.

"Then the bankruptcy court can either elect to allow that state court lawsuit to continue or move it over to the bankruptcy Court to try the actual lawsuit or ultimately they try and work settlements with all the various people that have losses,” Scheinberg said.

For decades, Camp Mystic was a summer staple and an institution for generations of families, who dropped off their girls at the sleepaway camp to ride horses, canoe, fish and attend Bible studies. Other summer camps in Kerr County, west of Austin, did not take on such devastating flooding and, in some cases, have reopened.

All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Eastland family spent months determined to reopen the camp this summer, pointing to enhanced safety measures that included flood-warning river monitors and two-way radios equipped with national weather alerts in every cabin.

By the spring, Camp Mystic's attorney said it was ready to reopen for business for nearly 900 campers.

But assurances of safety did not convince victims' families and some Texas lawmakers. State regulators found nearly two dozen deficiencies in the emergency operations plan submitted by the owners, including deficiencies in proposals for flood-warning evacuations and safety training.

According to a statement from attorneys for the Steward family, the camp "failed to prepare for the storm, failed to evacuate despite repeated opportunities, and left families to face chaos in the hours and days after the flood. In the last year, Camp Mystic and the Eastland family who have raced from one thing to the next—reopening, renovations, and destruction of evidence, licensing, motions attempting to push the legal cases out of public view and behind closed doors."

The decision not to reopen followed weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations that laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency and its reliance on poorly trained staff.

Families of the victims packed the hearings, some wearing “Heaven’s 27” pins with photographs of their daughters. They listened to the details of missed flood-warning signs, the descriptions of the flood, and the decision to leave the girls in their cabins until it was too late. Testimony included a video of the raging floodwaters as a girl repeatedly screamed “help!” somewhere in the distance.

Before halting the reopening plans, Camp Mystic invited journalists and lawmakers to review safety improvements at the camp and promised that no camp activities would take place in the low-lying area that was devastated by the flood. The Eastland family also stressed that hundreds of families wanted to return.

Camp Mystic on 'Dateline' Friday night

This Friday on Dateline, Lester Holt reports on the tragedy at Camp Mystic. The special features exclusive interviews with those who lost children and survivors of that fateful night. The special will also highlight the latest developments in the investigation. Dateline's all-new 1-hour episode, "After the Flood," airs Friday at 9 p.m on NBC 5.